


Homestead and Heartache

by MidnightMinx90



Series: Ichabod "Re-lives" the Revolution, or Why Abbie Should Think Gifts Through [4]
Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Assassin's Creed III, Gen, ichabod plays ac3, ichabod plays videoagames
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-22
Updated: 2014-01-22
Packaged: 2018-01-09 14:35:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1147132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightMinx90/pseuds/MidnightMinx90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seeing a virtual homestead in a game seems to bring out sadness in Ichabod's eyes. The case with Tomas and Roanoke isn't helping either.</p><p>But Abbie knows about loss as well, and doesn't hesitate to tell Ichabod she's there for him if he needs to talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homestead and Heartache

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ShadowDarkKitten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowDarkKitten/gifts).



Abbie always see the sadness and longing in Ichabod’s eyes when he is at the homestead, and especially when he’s interacting with the members of the community and gaining more of them.

It got worse after they helped young Thomas get back to his lost colony and they moved on. 

Ichabod seemed so at home with the people, speaking another, older form for English. They were the people of his time, and – as she stated to him – she had expected him to choose to stay with them.   
But each day she thought more and more about how much he belonged here, in this time, with her.

When Abbie watches Ichabod play, she sometimes feels a pang of guilt for thinking that. She needs him here, with her, to help her solve whatever the heck that’s going on, but lately she’s feeling something more, something that makes her want him to stay for more personal and selfish reasons.

This is why she tells him one day when he’s doing missions on the homestead that it’s okay if he wants to talk about being out of his own time, and that it’s okay for him to look and feel sad at what he didn’t have and now can’t have. 

“There’s nothing wrong with grieving, Crane. We all deal with loss, and yours is perhaps the worst of all. I can see it in your eyes, you know? When you play the game, and when we helped Thomas...” 

“Lieutenant…”

“Let me finish, Crane. I know about loss, especially when it comes to family. Jenny and I lost our parents when we were very young, and then we lost each other when she decided to tell the truth about what happened. I still think I did the right thing when I lied and told her to do the same, but if I could go back in order to change things; I would, because I couldn’t bear to lose her again.  
“What I’m trying to say, Crane, is that I’ve lived with loss for so long and I haven’t had anyone to talk to about it, not even Jenny because she resented me because of what I did. But you’ve got me now, and I’m here if you need to talk.”

Abbie’s little speech seems to have distracted Ichabod, making him forget about the game.   
When he looks back to the screen and realises what he was doing, he lets out a startled sound that breaks the heavy silence that has fallen over the room.

The atmosphere turns light again, and Ichabod’s facial expression makes Abbie laugh before she reaches for the controller to help him out.  
When she feels a spark when her hard touches his, Abbie tells her it’s just from the controller, even though she knows better than that.   
If Ichabod feels it as well, he doesn’t let her know and lets her take the control.

“Here, let me try this. I’ve broken up a few fights through the years, it can’t be that different in a game,” Abbie says to Ichabod, though she avoids looking at him and focuses on the screen instead.  
The two Irishmen have gotten into a fight, and Connor needs to separate them, though it proves to be more difficult than Abbie anticipated. 

The task is easy enough to understand, but she feels her eyesight get a bit wonky as she tries to use the joysticks on the controller and move them according to the lines on the screen. 

“I take it back; it’s MUCH easier to separate two people in real life,” she says and shakes her head. “Doesn’t mean I’m gonna give up though.”

Ichabod looks at her while she plays, tongue sticking out between her lips in concentration.  
He wonders if she felt the spark as well, but decides asking her about it, because it would be improper of him, no matter the customs of this era.   
Times have certainly changed, he muses as he lets his mind wander.

Lately, he’s taken to wonder about how different his relationship with Miss Mills would have been had she been born in his era or he in hers.  
Had she been born at the same time as him, she would have been a slave, working on a plantation somewhere. Or worse, she might have been a courtesan, destroying her body in order to survive and have food and a roof over her head.

Ichabod is sure that if she had been alive then, and not now, and he had known her, he would have taken her to his friend’s place, to that sanctuary for former slaves. 

Had he been born in this age, he knows he most likely would not have met her, though he cannot be certain. He had left for America because of the war, and he had intended to go back to England.   
Ichabod cannot say for certain that he would have ever come here from England had he not been born when he had, but he still clings to the hope that he would have met Miss Mills even so.

“HA!” Abbie exclaims, and Ichabod is startled from his reverie. Something about his expression makes the Lieutenant laugh, and he’s proud he’s capable of making her show such joy, even at his own expanse. 

“Here,” she says, handing him the controller back so he can finish the mission. “I’m gonna make some coffee, you want some?” she adds as she gets up from the couch and head for the kitchen. 

“Yes, thank you,” he replies, and before he can do anything about it, his mind starts wandering again, this time showing him images of what it would be like if the Lieutenant lived here with him, instead of in her own apartment.   
Ichabod quickly shakes his head, sure that that scenario is something that will never come true.

They sit side by side on the couch, sipping their coffee and switching between who gets to play the game. 

***

Saying goodbye has become a ritual for them by now. Abbie gets her stuff and Ichabod opens the door and gently brushes his lips against the back of her hand, his beard tickling her skin as his warm breath washes over her. 

It gets harder and harder to supress a shiver every time he does that, but Abbie doesn’t want him to stop. 

***

When Ichabod sleeps that night, his dreams are full of scenarios of Abbie living with him in the cottage. In the dreams, there is no apocalypse, no horsemen, and no monsters. Just the two of them living together, enjoying a much simpler life than fate has bestowed upon them.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally started this not long after the 5th episode, but struggled to continue with it. It's been over two months now since I've written anything for this fandom, but the season finale seems to have changed that, at least for now


End file.
